XAIxArts

Update July 3rd: Thank you to all authors for submitting your work to XAIxArts 4. We have published the workshop programs below. The call for submission is now closed, C&C conference attendees are welcome to participate in the workshop without a submission - please register interest through the conference website and contact the workshop organisers with any questions.

About

This 4th ACM C&C workshop on explainable AI for the Arts (XAIxArts) brings together and expands a community of researchers and creative practitioners in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Interaction Design, AI, eXplainable AI (XAI), and Digital Arts to explore the role of XAI for the Arts. XAI is a key concern of Responsible and Human-Centred AI, emphasising HCI techniques that make opaque AI models more understandable to people. XAIxArts offers a distinctive lens to examine explainability through creative and artistic domains. Our previous workshops explored the landscape and the speculative futures of AI in creative processes. The 4th workshop focuses on the operationalisation of XAI in the Arts. Specifically, we will:

Important Information

XAIxArts 2026 will be held at the ACM Creativity and Cognition Conference 2026

Venue:
Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London.
Room D115 (Floor 1).
Please see the map for the room information: https://programs.sigchi.org/c&c/2026/maps.

Miro Board:
We will use a Miro board for the workshop. Please access the board here: https://tinyurl.com/xaixarts2026

Schedule

All times are displayed in workshop time zone (London, UK. UTC +1:00)

9:00-9:30 Registration and Welcome

9:30-9:45 Opening Remarks

9:45-10:30 Presentations Group A (10 mins presentation, 5 mins Q&A)

10:30-10:45 Tea and Coffee Break

10:45-11:15 Presentations Group B (10 mins presentation, 5 mins Q&A)

11:15-12:00 Library of the Missing X: Group discussion and ideation on the missing links between Arts and XAI research.

12:00-13:30 Lunch at CSM canteen

13:30-14:00 Lunchtime Demo

14:00-15:15 Presentations Group C (10 mins presentation, 5 mins Q&A)

15:15-15:45 Tea and Coffee Break

15:45-16:15 Library of the Missing X: Quick presentations and open discussion.

16:15-17:00 Designing a Resource Hub: Scoping and planning the XAIxArts resource hub.

17:00 Closing remarks.

Themes

This workshop will explore how XAI might be used in the Arts and how the Arts might contribute to new forms of XAI. It will examine the challenges and opportunities at the intersection of XAI and the Arts (XAIxArts), offering a fresh and critical view on the explainable aspects of Responsible AI and Human-Centred AI more broadly. The themes include but are not limited to:

Beyond XAI as Tools

An increasing number of works treat AI as truly autonomous actors with the capability of operating independently with minimal human intervention, pushing the boundary of the role of AI in the Arts beyond just an interface on top of a model, extending to self-organised, situated, and embodied creative apparatus. This brings XAIxArts with questions about how we might operationalise transparency and accountability given the complex environment of actors, creators, audience, materials, and creativity. We ask the following questions:

XAI in Creativity Support

We are seeing a flourishing landscape of HCI research on creativity support tools that integrate AI for content creation. New modes of artistic and creative practices have emerged to respond to the rapidly shifting creative AI capabilities. Meanwhile, the debate about AI in creativity support ranges from copyright, AI provenance, biases, and wider ethical considerations, posing open questions to the transparency and accountability of AI. We ask the following questions:

Practice-Based and Critical Views on XAI

Unlike traditional technocentric approaches to XAI, the arts provide an alternative lens that emphasises aesthetic, experiential, embodied, and critical inquiry, in order to develop alternative forms of explanation. This theme draws on the XAIxArts Manifesto to champion practice-based and critical perspectives that centre artistic processes and interdisciplinary collaboration. To expand what explainability can mean beyond technical transparency, we ask the following questions:

Empowerment, Inclusion, and Fairness

Explainable AI (XAI) offers transparent, human-centred interaction with AI systems. In the arts, it can democratise creativity and amplify diverse voices, but technocentric designs risk exclusion, bias reinforcement, and prioritisation of efficiency over well-being. This theme centres empowerment, inclusion, and fairness as core to XAI in artistic practice. To further the call for approaches that further equity, agency, and ethical creativity, we ask the following questions:

Openness for XAI

Openness in communities and resources enables research in XAI that is technically robust, inclusive, intuitive, and engaging for broad audiences. It enables a cross-disciplinary view from the Arts ensures that insights and innovation are accessible to those without technical expertise. The openness aspect in XAIxArts calls for open communities that promote a joint approach to AI and the Art, collaborations between artists, technologists, and practitioners from other disciplines. We ask the following questions:

Camera-Ready and Video Instructions

In preparing for the camera-ready version, please follow the instructions below:

Your submission PDF should be within the 4-page limits (excluding Acknowledgments, References).

Organizers

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council through the Turing AI World Leading Researcher Fellowship in Somabotics: Creatively Embodying Artificial Intelligence [grant number APP22478], AI UK: Creating an International Ecosystem for Responsible AI Research and Innovation [EP/Y009800/1] (RAI UK/RAKE) and the STAHR Collective https://www.stahrc.org

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Contacts

If you have any questions feel free to contact Shuoyang Zheng, Terence Broad, and Nick Bryan-Kinns at the following email addresses: